Friday, December 26, 2008

Television Ratings Information Can Be Interesting

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - USA Network has regained its crown as the year's most-watched basic cable channel, while football and election coverage dominated the top of the programing chart.

USA has averaged 2.8 million viewers year-to-date in primetime, edging out last year's winner, Disney Channel, by about 463,000 viewers.

USA, the 2006 champ, was boosted by shows like the veteran series "Monk," which averaged 7.6 million viewers per first-run episode, while Disney boasted hits including the TV movie "Camp Rock" (10.1 million), which ranks as the year's most-watched entertainment program.

Ranking as the year's most-watched basic cable telecast was ESPN's Monday night coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys NFL game September 15 (18.6 million). In fact, NFL games on ESPN accounted for 13 of the year's top 20 telecasts.

Coverage of the presidential election also had a big presence in the top 20, with CNN's Election Night programing taking No. 2 (15.2 million) and four other spots, while Fox News' coverage of the October 2 vice presidential debate (11.1 million) landed at No. 17.

The only non-NFL or -election coverage ranking in the top 20 was TBS' coverage of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays on October 19. The game came in at No. 4 with 13.3 million viewers.

Meanwhile, USA also reigned in the advertiser-friendly adults 18-49 demo, averaging 1.3 million in primetime, followed by TBS (1.1 million), ESPN (1.02 million), TNT (1.01 million) and FX (712,000). That's nearly the same as last year, with the exception of TNT and ESPN swapping places.

In the younger demos, Disney won in primetime among kids 2-11 (1.3 million), kids 6-11 (1 million) and tweens 9-14 (842,000), while Nickelodeon won in total-day (1.2 million, 674,000 and 498,000, respectively).

I was actually thinking the other day of cable networks that could work well with NASCAR, replacing ESPN. USA Network did come to my mind because their affilation with NBC Universal. And I know USA Network does have experience with covering sports like tennis, golf, and olympics.

It would be a nice addition is one day NASCAR did hook up with USA network. I think it would be a good addition to both. I dont see it happening though.